Never the Same Twice
Mark Innerst, Pat Lipsky, Whitfield Lovell, Barbara Takenaga, Darren Waterston, Jane Wilson
March 17 - April 30, 2011
Because each of the Seas never remained for more than a day.
The next day there was another, which perhaps resembled it.
But I never saw the same one twice. – Marcel Proust
DC Moore Gallery is pleased to announce Never the Same Twice, the first group exhibition in our new space at 535 West 22nd Street. The exhibition brings together the work of Mark Innerst, Pat Lipsky, Whitfield Lovell, Barbara Takenaga, Darren Waterston, and Jane Wilson, six diverse contemporary artists who work in series. A selection of work relating to series by twentieth-century artists will be concurrently on display.
The exhibition takes its name from a portion of In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower in which Proust reflects on the changeability of light and the sea: “At this hour the rays came from different exposures and like different hours…I had opened my curtains in impatience to know which sea it was that played that morning at the edge of the shore, like a Nereid. Because each of the Seas never remained for more than a day. The next day there was another, which perhaps resembled it. But I never saw the same one twice.” This passage captures the tension between equivalence and difference and suggests the element of temporality inflecting each of the series presented.
Pat Lipsky is currently translating Proust, and Oceans is made up of three paintings directly inspired by the above passage. At first glance the work is all straight lines and symmetry. Closer inspection reveals that nuance abounds. Colors change in juxtaposition, shapes blur as they meet, and no composition or canvas size is identical.
All the Above, Where Avenues Meet, and Near Times Square are part of Mark Innerst’s most recent series emphasizing the mutability of the urban landscape. Vanishing points slip off-center, crowded out by buildings that curve overhead and sweep downward to street level, where human activity is reduced to blurs of light and movement. The city appears organic and fluid, unfolding from within and morphing from painting to painting.
Whitfield Lovell’s Round Series comprises fifty-four drawings of anonymous individuals each paired with a vintage, circular-shaped playing card. There is a drawing for each card in a complete deck, plus two jokers. The relationship of faces and symbols create psychological and sociological meanings concerning interior life, individuality, gender, and power. Implications of destiny, agency, chance, and one’s lot in life are also raised.
For Barbara Takenaga, working in series serves as a catalyst for experimentation. She arranges the simple components of her paintings, predominantly small dots and lines, into stunningly detailed compositions that undulate, radiate, and recede in seemingly infinite space. The paintings on view demonstrate variations on centralized compositions with shifts in color and scale. Spontaneous twists and puckers preserve the elements of wonder and surprise.
The paintings and watercolors in Forest Eater, Darren Waterston’s most recent series, explore the mystical and phenomenoligcal aspects of volcanoes. Individual works move between abstracted and pictorial representations of Pele, the ancient goddess of fire, and the Hawaiian landscape. An expanded version of Forest Eater, including four sculptures, will be on view at The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu this summer.
Jane Wilson’s ethereal landscapes are made up of bands of sky, sea, and land inspired by the East End of Long Island. Her approach to seriality involves capturing the same subject in different light. Wilson pushes this further, making the most passing phenomena tangible. Her paintings are sensitive investigations of color, documents of fleeting hours, and experiential understandings of seasons.
